Boy portrait from wider Dobrzensky/Brudermann family pre 1910

Head portrait study of a boy aged around 10, with long, light hair, looking directly at the viewer. The boy is wearing a blouse with a wide, wavy collar.
The background of the picture is lightly tinted, forming an oval shape.

JQAW# P_1910_200
Oil on canvas dimensions unknown
Signature: unsigned
Work lost
Picture: Künstlerhaus Archive Vienna

This unsigned work has been preserved as a photograph in the Künstlerhaus Archive, where it is attributed to the artist and identified as Ottokar von Dobrzensky. The picture is dated here to around 1910 or even earlier (1900?), which makes it impossible to attribute it to the suggested person, as Count Ottokar Dobrzensky was born in 1871 and there are no other descendants in the family with the name Ottokar. It is assumed that the boy may be a member of the related Dobrzensky or Brudermann families, born around 1900-1905. It is possible that the head portrait study was created in connection with an unknown portrait of the boy's mother, an approach Adams chose several times. Unfortunately, inquiries about the portrait with descendants of the Dobrzensky and Brudermann families did not yield any further clues. The attribution of the unsigned work to John Quincy Adams, as proposed by both the Vienna Künstlerhaus Archivist and APH in her catalogue, is considered both plausible and probable for stylistic reasons.

Cross-references

Exhibited

Literature

APH, catalog raisonné JQA 1995, p. 245, cat.#212, fig.#145.

Provenance

Unknown.
Work lost.